Abdul Hadi al Iraqi

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Nashwan Abdulbaqi alias Abdul Hadi al Iraqi
Senior al-Qaeda member
Born	circa 1960 Mosul, Iraq

Abdul Hadi al Iraqi (Arabic: عبد الهادي العراقي ‎) is the nom de guerre of Nashwan Abdulrazaq Abdulbaqi ( نشوان عبد الرزاق عبد الباقي ), an alleged senior member of al-Qaeda.^[1][2][3] He has been wanted in Iraq at least since February 2005.^[4] The more recent American wanted poster^[1] says the following.

Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi is one of Usama bin Laden’s top global deputies, personally chosen by bin Laden to monitor al Qaeda operations in Iraq. Al-Hadi was the former Internal Operations Chief for al Qaeda. He has been associated with numerous attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan and has been known to facilitate communication between al Qaeda in Iraq and al Qaeda. Al-Hadi rose to the rank of Major in Saddam Hussein’s army before moving to Afghanistan to fight against the Soviet Union. He has a reputation for being a skilled, intelligent, and experienced commander and is an extremely well-respected al Qaeda leader. He has commanded numerous terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. Al-Hadi is reportedly still in contact with Usama bin Laden.

United States intelligence officials describe al-Iraqi as an al-Qaeda commander and accountant.

Al-Iraqi was born in northern Mosul, around 1960 according to a Newsweek source^[5] but around 1970 according to the American wanted poster. The Newsweek article claimed that al Iraqi brokered a 2005 reconciliation between Osama bin Laden and Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.^[5] Newsweek asserted that bin Laden had failed to anticipate the strength of the Iraqi's anti-occupation resistance, and that he dispatched al Iraqi to take charge of establishing an al-Qaeda presence in the resistance. Newsweek asserted that Zarqawi had left a bad impression on his fellow veterans of the struggle to evict the Soviet invaders, and that bin Laden didn't trust him. However, al Iraqi recommended that al Qaeda would be better served by naming Zarqawi the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq than by trying to compete with him for volunteers and establish a parallel effort -- explaining the reconciliation.

The Newsweek article described al Iraqi as fluent in Arabic, Urdu, Kurdish, the Waziri tribal dialect of Pashtu and a courtly form of Persian. But several of the charges against Abdul Zahir stem from him serving as a translator for al Iraqi.^[6]

It was reported in January 2002 that someone with the same pseudonyms Abdul-Hadi al-Iraqi and Abu Abdullah had been captured in Afghanistan.^[7] That person was also described as a training camp commander. But despite these coincidences, the two suspects appear to be distinct people. A captured letter^[8] dated 13 June 2002, and thought to be from Saif al-Adel, mentions an Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi who is quite senior in al-Qaeda and is at large (probably in Afghanistan) at the time of that writing.

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Wanted poster on Abdulbaqi, Rewards for Justice Program, US Department of State
2. ^ Alleged Qaeda Member Faces Tribunal, CBS News, 4 April 2006
3. ^ Iraqi Government releases ’41 Most Wanted’ list, Multi-National Force - Iraq, 3 July 2006
4. ^ Press release, United States Central Command, 11 February 2005
5. ^ ^{a b} Terror Broker, Newsweek, 11 April 2006
6. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Abdul Zahir's Combatant Status Review Tribunal pages 1-8
7. ^ One of various reports of capture in 2002
8. ^ Al-Adl letter to Mukhtar, English translation by United States Military Academy